What began as a little eight-team tournament a decade ago with only San Diego County teams is now the largest girls basketball tourney in town during the regular season.

The SoCal Holiday Prep Classic has shed its first-year image and now boasts 53 teams playing in seven varsity divisions and one JV division in six gyms around the county.

“I never thought it would get this big,” said Westview High coach and tournament director Frank Quinones, who started the event in 2003 while he was coaching at Steele Canyon. “We could probably top it out at 64 one day.

“I thought we’d do this tournament for a year or two and then that would be it. Now we’ve had more than 200 teams play in the tournament at least once and there are a number of teams who have played every year.

“It’s been an amazing 10 years.”

Apparently, the word keeps spreading. Quinones’ little fundraising tournament keeps expanding and will include teams from six states and a couple of teams from Canada this year.

The reasons teams keep coming vary greatly.

Lauren Green, the coach at Jasper Place in Edmonton, Alberta, took her team to play in a tournament in Honolulu in 2010 and is bringing her team to the SoCal tournament for the first time.

Remembering her days as a player when her team took a road trip in December prompted her to adopt the same plan to travel at Christmas time every other year.

The one prerequisite is the tournament has to be in warm weather.

“I’m looking out my window and it’s snowing and the temperature is minus-19, so you can see why we picked this tournament,” Green said, laughing. “It had the three things we were looking for — warmth, the beach and Disneyland.”

The Rebels plan to be in Southern California for a whole week with a number of shopping trips, beach outings and, of course, a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Green, whose team flies in Wednesday and opens play Thursday against Gilbert (Ariz.) Campo Verde at Del Norte at 9:30 a.m., also plans to take her team to see a Clippers game at the Staples Center and a women’s basketball game at UCLA.

“Picking San Diego was so easy because there is so much to do outside of basketball,” Green said. “Once we’re there, some of the girls might not want to come home.

“Four or five girls have been to California before, but I’m sure we have one or two who have never even been on a plane before.

“I doubt any of these girls have ever worn tank tops and shorts outside in December in their lives.”

Matt Dale, the coach at Anaheim Canyon, is bringing his Comanches to the tournament for a different reason.

Team bonding is the No. 1 priority this week.

“We traveled for the first time two years ago when we played in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix,” Dale said. “The girls and the parents talked about that trip all year and about being together in the hotel, at team dinners, yoga classes at the hotel and desert hikes every morning.